TOPIC: PowerPoint - Where to start

I have a video projector now, but have never used PowerPoint or any other similar program. Where/how should I start? I just want to make up some still photo's welcoming my patrons and a few to reinforce a couple rules. I'd like to do some local scenic and old-time photos and of course a few still ads.

The open office.org version will work fine if you don't want to shell out $$ for MS Office with Powerpoint.

2 years ago I started teaching myself Powerpoint and found it very easy to learn. I currently have my boxoffice times displayed on a 19" monitor that displays showtimes, pics of the movies, and trailers I download off Apples site in Quicktime and convert to avi.

My concession menu is displayed on a 32" plasma screen with animations of various items along with items and prices.

The boxoffice display takes me about 5-10 minutes a week to update. A bit longer if I'm adding some new stuff.

I'm currently working on creating an interactive kiosk display for people interested in viewing movie trailers or get production info. on one of the current or coming soon attractions. Going to incorporate sponsor advertising into this one.

Currently not doing pre-show displays as an outside vendor handles that but have created some sample shows just to experiment.

What I enjoy about it is the freedom to create a unique display and the ability to change something on the fly if needed. Plus the displays really catch peoples eyes and I've seen an increase in pc at the stand since changing over.

Separate computers run each presentation. The one at the boxoffice is an oldie computer I had laying around. As that presentation has no graphic animation, I only have it loaded with PP reader(downloadable free from MS). The one at concession is a more recent model that handles the flashier stuff.

Send me your email address to
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and I'll send you part of the boxoffice file. If your computer has PP reader, you'll be able to see two slides.

What I really meant was were you running just one powerpoint on the concession screen or somehow dividing the screen into areas. I meet someone at show west who is using 4 flat computer monitors with 4 video cards to make up his concession sign.

The vendor who provided our digital projectors running the pre-show wired an outlet which is 24/7. The digital projectors are plugged into that outlet. They have another control box plugged into an outlet in the console which turns on/off when we start the film projector. Upon start, the lamp fan on the digital stays on to cool the bulb but the audio/video are killed to the screen. Don't know if this helps in any way.